Mikayel Amirkhanyan, Rector of the Yerevan Humanities Institute, has filed a defamation suit in the courts against Hetq reporter Ani Hovhannisyan, arguing that her article "Yes, I am engaged in business" (June 3, 2010) slanders his good name, honor and reputation. Mr. Amirkhanyan is demanding a retraction by the reporter. He is also asking 200,000 in material damages and 4,000 for a government fine already paid.

The plaintiff argues that the reporter, using testimony by 4th year Chinese language student Gayaneh Malishenko, went out of her way to paint him in a very negative light. Mr. Amirkhanyan adds that the Hetq reporter also tarnished the reputation of the school itself. Today, the Hetq office received the notice from the court but the document received by Ani Hovhannisyan consisted of half blank pages. We called up the court and were told that the ink for the copy machine had run out. More amazing was the fact that someone had written 8,000 AMD with a black pen instead of the 4,000 AMD fine. The trial is scheduled to start this September 16.